(STATEHOUSE) - 26 members of the nation's largest African-American sorority are Indiana's newest lobbyists... taking a couple of hours Tuesday to buttonhole legislators about heart disease.

Delta Sigma Theta's Statehouse visit is one in a series of "go red for women" events organized by the American Heart Association, in an effort to make sure women and their doctors don't shrug off the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Danielle Patterson with the Heart Association says the symptoms men and women experience are different. But she says the treatment they receive in emergency rooms is often different too. She says women with heart-attack symptoms are often counseled about stress and watching their cholesterol, rather than being hustled into the cardiac unit for tests.

The Association hopes to lay the groundwork to get funding in next year's budget for a state-sponsored awareness campaign. Heart disease kills more women each year than all forms of cancer combined.